A few weeks ago we took in a duck that had somehow lost it’s way from it’s mother and was being raised by a family during summer vacation from school. When school was starting and the duck was quite a bit bigger they realized they could no longer care for it and asked if we would take it.

Mrs. Waddles is a mallard duck. She did not have the skills to survive on her own as the little girl who was “mothering” her treated her as you would a puppy. It would not have been fair to try and let her go in the wild without the natural instincts she should have. So we took her in as we have raised mallards on our ranch before.

Over the past 2 weeks we have been teaching her how to be a duck. She has her own little pen which is attached to the chicken and goat pasture. Every day we use the hose and make a little make shift “marsh” so she will learn how to forage for food, bugs and worms as she would in the wild. She loves being squirted with the hose and she is flapping her wings which is what she should be doing to build strength to eventually fly. See video on my Facebook page here

Next week we will take her back to our pond and let her swim and work further on her skills in a larger setting. Hopefully before the middle of October she will be teaching herself how to fly and eventually will leave our home in search of her own kind.

It’s a new adventure every season and day walking our trails. Every day nature changes herself with a recent broken tree limb on the trail, a tree that has shed it’s leaves, a woodpeckers that has pecked a new design in a hollowed out dead tree.

The dogs happily prance around running at times from trail to trail on the scent of an animal. On a neighboring trail a shack was put up overnight last winter.

On horseback you see things at a different level and there’s always time to snap a picture of changing leaves, favorite old trees and open meadows.

Happy dogs go racing by only to be stopped dead in their tracks by a friendly neighbor enjoying the trails on her horse.

And there’s never a dull moment for human or animal. There is nothing but the beauty of our world in all it’s splendor.

So while I now know the name of my addiction, I am happy to admit that I am a Nemophilist!!!

Our neighbor turned the big 6-0 today and his wishes for his celebration were to take a group trail ride and have a cookout after. So we all saddled up and took a little over and hour trail ride and grilled some wonderful food. We came home early from our County Fair to celebrate with him. A truly awesome day with 5 hours of fair fun and 4 hours of neighborhood fun!! Happy Birthday to Eric!

Heading out

trying to take a picture of my friend behind me while riding no handed

That is the man of the house in the lead. Of course my horse decided to trot when she knew I had the reins down and was taking a picture..blurry!!

Our two apple trees are producing some fine looking Macintosh apples for the fall. We have a few wild apple trees on our property also which are Empire apples. We take the tractor back to pick those and these close to the house are dwarf trees so a step ladder works well for picking.

Apples remind me of fall and all the wonderful things to make for the winter months such as apple pies, apple bread, apple crisp, and of course loads of crock pot applesauce to freeze.

While I am not ready for summer to end, I get a feeling of happiness and family nights thinking of fall with football, apples, changing leaves and crisp nights. We have a few more weeks before that season hits so I will enjoy what we have left of summer.

And so it begins…the first of the 1100 or so bales of hay we have delivered at our house and our neighbors. We always get a group together to unload. Tonight was the first of our deliveries at my barn. In total 160 bales. While it’s heavy work it is also a huge peace of mind to know after another 2 loads we will be fully stocked for whatever Mr. Winter throws our way. Our horses, goats and rabbits will eat good regardless!!

I have become a bag lady in my attempts to keep the mice and birds out of my garden!!!!

My garden was/is coming along nicely even though I lost a LOT of leaves of my plants to the mice. My sunflowers were growing in nicely also around the edge and I have been watching the birds dive and grab the fresh tender plant that is starting. So I am fighting back!! I have never had a problem with mice in the past. I was planting some new plants the other day and one ran right out and grabbed a bite of a bean plant!! BAD!!!

Here are some of the recent pictures. You will see from the beginning of the container potatoes until these pictures from yesterday how quickly they have grown and filled up a 2 foot by 3 foot pot. I am hoping for a good haul of potatoes trying this for the first time.

container potatoes

pickle cucumbers, white & red onions, butternut squash

Indian Corn

Pumpkin, celery, peppers

The corn, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, beans, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries are all coming along also.

This site is about my life as a farmgirl, wife, mother and grandmother and the things I love to do. I've been married to the same man that I love for 40+ years. We have two beautiful adult children and one granddaughter. We pretty much live off of our farm by raising our food or hunting for it. My blog is a day to day walk-through of our life.